Based on the studio banter, this is certainly a pre-performance rehearsal of Viola Lee Blues, which makes the early January 1966 estimate quite possible. It's clear that the band does not quite know the whole tune yet, though they have the basic lines down for the most part.

Pigpen comes in briefly in what seems to be a semi-comatose state, makes a somewhat useless contribution, and winds up leaving.

The most interesting part is clearly the 15-minute version of the song, which only ends as the tape runs out. The jam goes into several different directions and seems destined to go on forever.

Overall, though, this is rough, and is really only going to be interesting to the most hardcore of fans.

4 5/5

http://deadessays.blogspot.com/2014/05/the-1966-mystery-reels-guest-post.html?m=1

Regarding Owsley being the taper, he was most likely there taping or doing something. If this is before the Pico acid test in LA, they were staying in his rented house where he was also manufacturing acid. He was in the Dead camp for most of '66-'68 doing sound. There's a nice photo of him and Garcia at the San Diego airport in 1968 arriving for (or departing from) two shows at the old Hippodrome.

As has been said, this recording is a great bit of history for the band. I always find it fun to hear their banter. As the years went on, there was little said aside from, "We'll be back after just a short break."

Mostly pretty good, but the 15 minute jam is hella rough.

I've been trying to find the earlier GD stuff and it looks like this just might the first recordings we still have? Very historical.

This is a gem! It's so rare to get such a long piece of rehearsal time. Great for folks who play and for getting a sense of how the boys worked together. Plus it's just a pleasure to listen to this. The sound is surprisingly good for the context. I listened to the whole thing smiling like crazy.

Implying that there's a drunken status suitable for driving, Bob?
5 stars for historic reasons.

Although I have seen no concrete evidence - handwritten papers from the session, a signature, etc indicating the lineage of this tape, WEIR saying OWSLEY's name/speaking to OWSLEY, and the time/date of the recording indicates OWSLEY is the original sound engineer and recording engineer (taper) for this session.
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captivating....moving pictures, recorded....

I think this is from the big pink house in LA right before the Pico Acid Test 3/12 where they played Viola.

Very fun to listen to; especially if you are an aspiring bassist.

One word, especially if you are an obsessed deadhead like myself. FASCINATING!!

in this track at about 8:20 there is a foreshadowing of what would become the Truckin groove

interesting listen especially for context of where they came from

otherwise there is a reason they call these outtakes

I listened to this session top to bottom....it is, at this point, a documentary piece.

I found it to be enthralling.

Pig may have been the front man on stage, but Jerry was clearly directing the band in this rehearsal. His determination and ability to lead are evident on this tape.

A real joy. A chance to stop imagining what an early GD rehearsal was like. Land on the wall and dig the scene baby. It's Tasty, it's tasty.:)

Could this have been recorded in the FM campus radio station they rehearsed in at night in those days? The sound quality is excellent for the time.
Fun hearing this, but the album version is such an exalted trip!

This is fantastic! If you love these guys, its a must. 5 stars for sheer rarity. And Bob's a goof.

this is awsome but i cant figure out how to download it...i guess i dnt know how to download anything..hah u can tell pig pens drunk off his ass

If you listen closely, you can hear Phil saying to Jerry that the band has to learn it before they go to L.A. the upcoming Saturday to play the "thing". Perhaps he's talking about the Watts Acid Test which took place on Feb 12, 1966. This would probably place this practice session in early February in San Francisco at their rehearsal space.

This sounds as though this is one of the early worked out versions of Viola Lee Blues they did. They were probably in thier own home just beginning to rehearse. Good quality. Historically amazing. Great jam at end.

However, this cannot possibly be from 67. By mid 67, pigpen had moved from the Vox Continential to a hammond and jerry's guitar sound had moved from a clear direct sound to a more ditorted low end jazzy sound. Also, it is Pig doing the harmony, not Weir and there are sections where he is playing harmonica. Its got to be from early 66, maybe late 65. Still great though.

P.S. HAPPY 60TH PIGPEN!!!

TO SCANLE, THAT IS PHIL NOT JERRY SAYNG Ill,break that bottle over your head if you come in here with that again.THAT WAS 9 YEARS before Phil became a DRUNK himself.BUT JUST TO HAVE THIS SHIT TO LISTEN TO IS FUN!!

Pig wanders in and out, maybe on consec. days. Bear is there trying to master the system. Seems like they are all residing together in this stable space. Why not speculate that they have set up in the big pink house in L.A. learning new tunes early in Feb. '66? No live Viola Lee dates eariler than March. Is there a good reason to consider this Jan. '66 instead of Feb.?

It's extremely interesting that Pig was originally slated to sing harmony on this tune. Hear him struggle through the rehearsal. Soon is not in the picture at all, plus Phil seems to be complaining about his choosing drinking over rehearsal. "Bust it [that bottle you're drinking from] over his head," etc.

This can't be from mid '67 as speculated elsewhere because they obviously do not know the song at all. This rehearsal must have taken place before the song was ever performed in public. The earliest known performances all display the fruit of the work heard here.

Which by coincidence was the tagline for the movie 'Petulia', highly regarded by most crtics such as Roger Ebert at the time of it's release, June 1968 though for our purposes what makes it at all memorable now is the footage it features of the Grateful Dead performing sections of "Viola Lee Blues"...
plus, Janis belts out "Roadblock" with Big Brother & the Holding Company at a posh party in the lobby of the SF Fairmount Hotel.

I'm tempted to speculate, given the intense pressure and concentration on phrasing heard in these rehearsals of their all-out show stopper of the time ('67 esp.), that
Phil and Jerry truncate the number here much like the snippets that serve as psychedelic scenery for straight man George C. Scott.
It seems that the band is preparing or even auditioning for their upcoming flashback to an earlier time frame...
Which may have been filmed well before Dick ('A Hard Day's Night') Lester began nailing down the main direction of what would become a prestige Hollywood production.

The pressure to get it together is so strong that this can't be just another rehearsal... the question is,
could this tape be from as late as mid-'67?

In any case, it is, I believe, worth comparing to their brief but beautifully photographed (Nicholas Roeg) bit in an oddball 4 star throwaway.

I really like the inbetween bantering. You can hear Jerry getting ticked off at Pigpen who eventually leaves. Then you hear Weir say something about Pigpen being too drunk to drive. Jerry then says something about smashing the bottle next time he sees him. Some serious foreshadowing here.

It means the exact date is unknown

Why does the file say "66-01-xx" when you download it?

This must of been deep in the vault.Listening to them b/s is gr8.That is 1 viscious Viola Lee

Certainly on a historical perspective, this is fascinating stuff as we listen to Jerry become the teacher with the rest of the boys as students. The sound quality is surprisingly good. The final jam wails but is abruptly cut off.

This is a fantastic slice of vintage Dead of work in progress.From the dialogue it sounds like probably dates from a few days before they went to LA.This will do nicely till some live Warlocks tapes appear....ENJOY!